Conversations held through the medium of coffee
by netgirly2k
Summary: The Beginning of a beautiful, or at the very least politically useful friendship


CJ had thought that the number of newspapers she'd had to fight her way through every morning as press secretary had been bad, she hadn't known how well off she was. As Chief of Staff she felt as if she had to carry her own bodyweight in paperwork in every morning, and that was just the stuff that she'd taken home in desperate bid to at least see her bed before she had to come back into the office.

In the relatively short distance between the main entrance and her office it seemed to CJ that every single person who worked for the federal government managed to catch her and give her more files, folders and memos.

"Here, give me some of those," Margaret took the majority of the papers out of CJ's arms, prompting CJ to feel a rush of warmth towards her assistant, "and take these," Margaret placed several large box files on top of the remaining files.

"I've chased the press out of your office, senior staff is in five minutes, then you're in with the president, the phone call with the British prime minister has been pushed back to nine thirty, and I've-"

CJ shut her office door in Margaret's face, hoping to get a minute or two to herself, or at the very least long enough to remember her name and what her job was. She deposited the files on her desk, sat down and began leafing through the phone messages that Margaret had deemed important enough to pass on.

She picked up the cardboard coffee cup next to the phone and took a mouthful, registering two things at the same time; number one, the coffee was stone cold, and number two, a yellow post it with the word 'Sorry' on it was attached to the side.

"Margaret!"

Margaret obediently popped her head around the door.

"What are you apologising for, and why are you apologising with cold coffee?"

"That wasn't me, Kate dropped it in."

"Kate? About so tall, blonde hair, works for Nancy McNally Kate?"

"Yes, she called to ask me what kind of coffee you drank and then dropped that in." 

"Oh, well…" CJ found herself experiencing one of those rare moments where she was genuinely lost for words.

"Is it true that you and Kate had a fight in the Oval office?" Margaret asked.

"No."

"Because Nancy told me that you two had a big fight in the Oval office yesterday."

"It wasn't a fight, it was a frank exchange of views, and it wasn't in the Oval, it was, well, just outside the oval."

"And did she really accuse you of not understanding the nuances of the Middle East peacekeeping mission?"

CJ circled the messages she was going to return, and balled up the ones she wasn't, "No, that wasn't what she said it was just what I thought she was said. Schedule these calls for later today."

"Nancy says that Debbie squirted you both with her thing for watering plants to shut you up."

"Don't you have a job to do?"

"Yes, but-"

"It's true, go away."

CJ began leafing through reports to make sure there hadn't been any major disasters during the twenty or so minutes of sleep she'd finally managed to get.

"Margaret, get me a fresh cup of coffee and-" CJ paused.

"Yes?"

"Call Kate Harper's assistant and find out what sort of coffee she drinks."

Margaret nodded and left the office, but even if she had been inclined to comment on CJ's request she would have been drowned out by the sound of Josh and Toby arriving for senior staff mid argument.

--- 

"Your meeting with State has been pushed back to half past two so I've moved that conference call to three and you're in with president right now so you may want to give me the rest of that sandwich."

CJ grumbled and handed the rest of her mostly uneaten lunch to Margaret. Before she'd started this job she hadn't thought of Margaret as anything other than the gatekeeper she sometimes had to get past when she wanted to discuss something important with Leo, now she seemed to spend half her life curtailing homicidal impulses towards her assistant.

"Oh, and I tried to call Kate Harper's assistant, only it turns out that she doesn't actually have an assistant, apparently they share staff over at-"

"Margaret, I'm walking into the Oval office as we speak."

"Black, two sugars."

---

By the time CJ got off her final call, made a dent in the north face of her paperwork and found Kate's office (which was in a location only slightly more desirable than Charlie's) she was surprised to find the other woman still in the building.

"Black, two sugars," CJ held out the coffee, "Margaret had in on good authority that this is how you take it."

"Thanks, so what brings you all the way down here?" Kate asked, shutting the file she'd been reading and gratefully accepting the coffee.

"I wanted to apologise for yesterday, perhaps I was a little oversensitive." 

"Not your fault, subtlety never was my strong point."

"It's just," CJ took a deep breath, "It's just I was never supposed to be doing this job. It wasn't supposed to me, and I thought my old job was difficult but it's nothing compared to this. And although the fact that western democracy hasn't collapsed unto itself implies that I'm doing this job with a degree of competency I still spent most of last week throwing papers around my office and scaring the living daylights out of my assistant. Who isn't really my assistant, she's Leo's assistant I'm just keeping her because at the moment she understands my job better than I do." She paused for air, "What was I saying, again?"

"I'm really not sure," Kate said.

"I might over-react to the suggestion that I'm not on top of everything."

"CJ, I didn't mean to imply that you don't understand what's going on in the Middle-East, but I've been doing this most of my adult life and I don't entirely understand how we're going to get out of this quagmire."

CJ dropped into the chair opposite Kate, "That's really depressing."

"Isn't it, you want a drink?"

"All day everyday since I started this job."

Kate rummaged around in her desk drawer and produced a mostly full bottle of scotch and two glasses. "My first day here I managed to get lost in the basement for two and a half hours looking for my office and I had to call Nancy McNally for directions."

"That's quite bad," CJ agreed. "Kate?"

Kate stopped just on the verge of pouring the scotch, "yeah?"

"Do you want to go to a bar?"

"A bar?"

"Yeah, pay for overpriced drinks, sit at a table, talk about anything but peacekeeping in the Middle-East or uranium in Georgia. Act like normal people who don't do this for a living."

Kate put the scotch away, shut down her computer and cleared away the paperwork littering her desk, "I'd really liked that."

CJ stood and waited for Kate to finish clearing away the, probably highly classified detritus, on her desk. 

"Have you got an opinion on the grasshopper?" CJ asked as Kate flicked off the light switch.

"The bug?"

"The drink," CJ corrected, following Kate out of the office and up the stairs.

"They name drinks after insects now…"


End file.
